Trending: What it takes to be 'middle class' in Greenwich

Updated 10:33 pm, Wednesday, September 4, 2013

To be considered middle class in Greenwich, a family has to bring in between $169,466 and $508,354 a year, according to an analysis performed for Hearst Connecticut by a University of Connecticut professor.

That's more than four times the national minimum for middle class, which Pew Research Center pegs at $39,418, confirming what many residents already know about the town: It's expensive. Maybe even too expensive for the Every Man and Every Woman.

The average employee in the Greenwich's Police Department takes home about $78,000 a year, according to payroll data; for employees of the town's school district it's $87,000. At those rates, middle class lives in town -- where home values are so high that they go above the Census Bureau's top price range of $1 million, and are not even listed -- can be out of reach for many of those public employees. Only 14 percent of police department employees live in town, along with 24 percent of teachers, according to records obtained by Hearst Connecticut Newspapers.

"One of the huge challenges we face in Fairfield County is that the teachers and firefighters, nurses and policemen who serve a town like Greenwich find it very, very challenging to find housing in the town they serve," said U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4, who represents Fairfield County in Congress.

Across America, 85 percent of people who describe themselves as middle class say it's "more difficult now than it was a decade ago for middle-class people to maintain their standard of living," according to a 2012 Pew report, entitled "The Lost Decade of the Middle Class." And here in Southwestern Connecticut, the baseline for entering the middle class is significantly higher than the national average.

The threshold for being classified as middle class here ranges from a basement of $51,688 in Bridgeport to $263,473 in Weston, with a wide range of communities sprinkled in between, like Danbury at $79,668 and Stamford at $93,541.

But the middle class is about more than just income ranges.

Jeremy Pais, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut in Storrs who analyzed income data for Hearst Connecticut, said that while definitions of middle class have shifted over the decades, homeownership is an important component, along with a car for each adult in the family.

"Some might say that you could go almost as far as to have the two cars, two kids, white picket fence," he said. But it doesn't have to be that cookie cutter.

"It's whether they have disposable income to do recreation, to go out to dinner when they want and go on vacation, while still having their basic bills and everything met," he said. "So they're stable enough where they're taking care of the things that they need to do, and yet they have enough money to do some of the things they want to do, like go on vacation or put in that swimming pool."

A household income in the $39,000 range may be the gateway to that lifestyle in many parts of the country, but it doesn't cut the mustard in Greenwich, where the million-dollar-plus median value of a home is significantly higher than the national average of $186,200.

"It's a matter of choice," said Greenwich First Selectman Peter Tesei. In Greenwich, he said middle class families "could avail themselves to living arrangements, but they may not be to the standard that they are striving for. So again, it's a matter of choice, what one desires for themselves and their families. And we all make choices for our lives; we're all individuals."

Of course, making the choice to move to Greenwich with tighter purse strings comes at a cost, Tesei said.

"If they want to live in Greenwich, and they're making $80,000 a year, you know they could perhaps find a condominium to rent or a small house to rent, but that's likely not what they desire in terms of having a larger piece of land, or perhaps owning their own home," he said.

Tesei compared his living situation to what it would cost in another state, like Massachusetts, where he has family, noting that the same amount of money would certainly buy him more -- "a fairly large piece of land and a fairly sizeable home" -- but his love of his hometown keeps him in Greenwich.

"A dollar just goes a lot further in Nebraska than it does in Fairfield County," said Himes, a Greenwich resident.

"To have a middle class lifestyle in a high-cost area like Fairfield County requires much more money than it does in much of the rest of the country. It's not like we're unique; the same is true of New York City, San Francisco and other high-cost areas that make it a lot harder to be middle class," he said. "And that's a good thing for people who have the skills that are required in places like Fairfield County and a really bad thing for people who don't."

That has led to a middle class that's tougher to crack into he said, comparing today's version of middle class America to the one that existed in his grandparents' generation, where "most Americans were middle class because after high school, they walked down the street and went to work in the factory" or as a police officer or firefighter.

Getting by as a typical middle class resident in Greenwich may be a challenge, but Tesei said the middle class is inextricably linked with the idea of the American dream -- and there is ample room for that mentality in town.

"It's about striving for quality of life and our American ideal of independence, freedom and pursuing the American dream," he said.

"And what does that really mean? I think everyone in society wants to live a fulfilling and tranquil life where they can raise a family and see their children nurtured, grow and succeed, and I think the town offers that," Tesei said. "Yes, there's an entry point, but everyone has to start from somewhere."